What Keeps You Up at Night?

Seriously…what keeps you up at night? Is it related to “Pain”? Or is it related to “Pleasure”?

In this day and age — wherein applied creativity, innovation and imagination are highly valued in the marketplace — I would surmise that most creative, innovative, imaginative and engaged people are motivated by “Pleasure” rather than “Pain” (i.e. threats, intimidation, or fear).

How about “compensation/money” as a motivating factor? Sometimes, incentive-based compensation causes too much competition… as a result, people keep stuff to themselves (thinking it is to their advantage)…they do not share…they do not cooperate … as a result, the larger aim of the enterprise is not achieved. It’s the enterprise’s loss. I say, “remove the money issue off the table — justly pay the knowledge workers — and focus back to value delivery”… and “unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers” — which is the SAFe principle #8.

Daniel Pink’s “MAP” illustrated it perfectly: Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose.

A purpose-driven person (a person with a vision, mission, and goal), with autonomy (minimal constraint on how that vision/mission/goal is achieved), with an intent to “master” or surmount a challenging vision/mission/goal… is up at night… and eagerly wakes up early in the morning to continue the pursuit/endeavor/journey! Perhaps even singing “hi-ho, hi-ho, off to work I go”! That person is super motivated! He will climb the highest mountain, will dive deep in the deepest ocean…will collaborate, cooperate and share!

Per SAFe,  “unlocking  intrinsic motivation can significantly improve the lives of those doing the work, as well as provide better outcomes for customers and the enterprise.”

This is also applicable at home/personal life. when I was a kid growing up, I was consumed by the game of Chess. Every night, I go to sleep thinking about the games that I have played that day…and waking up early in the morning to do more studies in Chess… and can’t wait to applying what I have learned against my Chess mates. This went on for a while…quite a long while. I was driven: I had “Mastery” (you bet, I wanted to master this game of Chess), with “Autonomy” (my parents were “OK” with it), and sense of “Purpose” (I wanted to be a Chess Champion one day). I was super motivated!

How about you…what keeps you up at night? What is your motivation? Is it related to “Pain”? Or is it related to “Pleasure”?